The Lost Ones
by faithinthecharm
Summary: Patti casts a spell to stop her girls becoming the Charmed Ones after the pain of giving away her baby becomes too much. The spell manifests itself by killing Patti & Penny, tossing the girls to the wind, splitting them up & breaking the Charmed bond. How
1. Prologue The winds of destiny

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**The Lost Ones**

**Prologue**

**The winds of destiny**

This is short (outrageously so I know) because it's just set up. It'll start properly very soon. Please R&R

"Mommy, Mommy"

Her youngest, she corrected herself in her head, middle girl called out to her, probably disturbed by her arrival.

"Patti?" her mother looked at her concerned

"I can't Mom. Will you go?"

Penny Haliwell sighed her pain at seeing her only child like this evident and rose to see to Phoebe. Alone in the living room of Haliwell Manor, Patty dropped her head and sobbed.

Meanwhile in the arms of a nun at the local church, a nun, Sister Mary Agnes, gazed into the eyes of the beautiful girl child, sleeping soundly swaddled in a soft blanket embroidered with a P, that had been given to her by the angels.

As the angel sits and weeps, she mutters a spell under her breath, a spell that will prevent any of her children from ever becoming Charmed, and set off on foot across the city to claim her baby, too upset to drive and vowing never to call Sam again. Never to use magic again. This rash wish means she cannot change her lost one's destiny for she arrives too late. Her baby is gone. The nun has kept her promise and given her to a good family.

"The Matthews'" Sister Mary Agnes explains " Good solid people, never able to have their own children, but they'll make perfect parents."

Patty turns from the church and walks away into the night, so distraught she never sees the car that takes her life, just as Penny, weakened by the loss of her fourth grand daughter, cannot fight against the demon that takes her life.

This is the backfire of Penny Haliwell's spell as her children are scattered to the winds of fortune after their father cannot be found.

The new Power of Four cannot be formed because the bonds of sisterhood are destroyed as is their link to the long standing and respected Haliwell line.

But destiny must always have a hand in such things


	2. Prudence Gordon

A/N Yes I know the grammar on the Prologue was awful and may my TEFL tutor shoot me for it, but it kinda came straight out of my head into the PC at 11.30 at night. This one will be better and longer I promise.

Please R&R as before and if you like this please R&R my other Charmed story 'The Rising'.

The action has moved on 11 years and I've had to fiddle with the girls ages a bit for this to work how I wanted it to

Thanks for reading

Purple.

**Prudence Gordon**

"Pru, get out of bed or you're not going to get to eat breakfast before you go to school."

Pru sighed heavily. Man, being seventeen was hard work.

"Coming Mom!"

She caught herself in that instant wondering why she called Sarah Gordon 'Mom'. She knew that this woman was not her mother. That these people had adopted her when she was six years old, but somehow, even though she knew she probably should have been able to, she couldn't remember a single thing about her life before the Gordon's had adopted her. Various psychologists had tried to ferret out these memories, but upon failing miserably had announced that she was simply repressing painful memories too well.

"Pru!" Sarah's voice snapped Pru out of her reverie. "I'm coming!"

She bounced down the stairs, as she knew this was the best way to convince her Mom she had been hurrying all along.

She sat at the breakfast bar in her family's big kitchen and waited as her Mom bought a plate of raisin toast to the table to her and sat opposite her, watching her adopted daughter pour herself a glass of orange juice from the jug in the centre of the table.

"Where's Dad?"

"He had to go to work early this morning, honey."

"What time did he get back last night?"

Her mother looked away and swiftly changed the subject "Do you have practice tonight? I washed your cheer leading things."

Pru looked hard at Sarah for a moment and then decided to let the subject drop. "Yep. So I'll be home late. Will you be in?"

"Honey, when have I not been in?" her mother asked, a little sarcastic, a little weary.

"I know Mom" Pru drained the last her orange juice and grabbed another peace of fruit toast, as she got off her stool. "But hey, maybe you should think about that. I hear the outside world can be pretty interesting at this time of year!"

Sarah laughed and swatted at her daughter's retreating form with the newspaper she had been reading. She told herself she was happy just how things were as she watched her daughter shove the fruit toast between her teeth and grab her school and kit bags and go out of the door. 'But then', she wondered 'might Pru be right?'. Sarah knew that the time would come and probably not far from now when her husband would stop upholding the illusion and simply stop coming home altogether.

As her mother was musing how she was going to cope with the meltdown her family, the shattering of the delicate illusion of perfection, she had worked so hard to create and keep going, Pru was driving her car down Prescott street, towards school.

Even though it wasn't safe because she was in the car, a classic red Triumph, with a soft-top, a gift from her father for passing her test, Pru found her gaze drawn to the red house with the stained glass windows.

It had stood empty for as long as Pru could remember, but it seemed to tug at something in those locked away, psychologist proof memories of hers. When she got close enough to read the sign, with its peeling paint ' The Manor' bought a lump to her throat and made her eyes swim, though for the life of her she couldn't think why.

What would she, Prudence Gordon, head cheer leader, honour role student, shoo in for homecoming queen, with the whole football team after her (even if she did only have eyes for Andy) and a wonderful home life, what with a dusty, creepy, dead, old house on Prescott street?

However, if she could have tapped her memories she would have known exactly what she Prudence Haliwell, protective eldest sister and up and coming witch, wanted with her old family home on Prescott Street.

But Pru simply shivered and put her foot on the gas to put as much space between her and that house, not noticing as she splashed water all over a younger girl, from the year below her who was walking to school.


	3. Piper McKenzie

Please R&R as before and if you like this please R&R my other Charmed story 'The Rising'.

The action has moved on 11 years and I've had to fiddle with the girls ages a bit for this to work how I wanted it to

Thanks for reading

Purple.

**Chapter 2**

**Piper McKenzie**

Piper had left home that day on a good solid breakfast she'd made herself, because there had been no one else around to do it. Her Mom was still sleeping late because her shift heading up the family restaurant had run late and her father had needed to get up early to deal with the morning delivery. She loved the restaurant and she helped to wait tables at the weekends and on holidays, but she really enjoyed learning to cook with her mother, and now her mom said that Piper was becoming a better cook than she was. Piper trudged on towards school, smiling at the thought of that compliment.

The sound of a car revving up snapped her out of her thoughts and the sheet of water that hit her, even as she raised her hands to try to stop it.

She swore at the soft top vintage as it drove away and turned around jogging towards home.

She shut the door, and turned to see her adoptive mother, tousled from sleeping, hitting the coffee that Piper had brewed earlier. Her mother smiled sleepily and crossed to kiss her daughter's forehead. Piper smiled back.

"Hey honey, what are you doing back?"

Piper gestured at her soaked clothing in one stressed, quick movement.

"Sorry baby, I suppose I'm not awake yet. Thanks for putting the coffee on. Did you get a proper breakfast? I'm sorry I wasn't up to make it for you."

"I had eggs. It's okay, Mom. I have to go change, can you drive me 'coz' I'm going to be really late otherwise."

"Sure, what happened anyway?"

"That damn soft top!"

"Piper!" she reproved her daughter's language "Honey you know if we could..."

"It's okay, the restaurant will take off in time, and then I'll let you buy me twelve soft tops".

Her mother laughed as her daughter turned and ran upstairs to change her clothes.

Piper ran up the drive towards her school, after jumping out of her mothers car and throwing a quick wave and smile of thanks over her shoulder. As she walked past she she nearly rammed into the cute blonde guy who was stood by the entrance to the school

"Sorry" he said flashing her a fabulous grin.

"S-S-Sorry" she stuttered, and was so busy looking at the cute guy, she nearly backed into a girl from the lower year snapping gum.


	4. Phoebe Wildman

Please R&R as before and if you like this please R&R my other Charmed story 'The Rising'.

The action has moved on 11 years and I've had to fiddle with the girls ages a bit for this to work how I wanted it to

Thanks for reading

Purple.

**Chapter 3**

**Phoebe Wildman**

Phoebe 'Freebie' Wildman was in tenth grade but she was really trying not to be, after she rammed into that eleventh grader and checked out the blonde guy with the nice ass. The older girl had actually stuttered when she spoke to him. Phoebe rolled her eyes when she thought about it, God, what a loser!

"Hey, Pheebs!" her on/ off boyfriend, Todd, called out to her "You actually gonna go today?"

She popped the bubble that she had blown with her gum. "Yeah, I kinda gotta, Miss Hickhock caught me 'borrowing' Ramona's homework again, and she called my olds in. I don't want to have to climb out of my window for the next month. It ruins my nails."

"Awww, come on Pheeb's, there's better things to do! What happened to Wildman by name Wild Woman by nature?"

"Not if I still want an allowance, there's better things to do! And you'll have to wait and see until tonight, if I'm still going to be a Wild Woman, after I've been a good girl all day!" she said flirtatiously.

Todd tutted loudly, and stalked off to find his other girl. Phoebe left him glaring after her, shifted her heavy, leather jacket on her shoulders and set off to find Ramona, who of all of them, might know where her classrooms were.

Her stomach grumbled as it worked over the fabulous Twinkie breakfast, and caught up with the more bookish member of her group. "Ro'?" she called out down the hall, as she sidled up to her locker and having forgotten the combination, just hit it in the right spot below the lock and stood back for the door to spring open, noting from the smell of it that she might want to pay a little more attention to what she left in there.

"Phoebe, you're here?"

"You seem amazed Ro' Ro'?"

"Well it's not so often we see you?"

Phoebe shot Rowena a look, which her friend shrank away from "Where are we supposed to be now?"

"Where's your timetable?"

"Lost it"

"Well turn left down this corridor and go to the office and fetch a new one. I wasn't in any classes with you guys this year, not that it would matter." she added under her breath as Phoebe stalked to the admissions office.

Phoebe joined the queue, just as a pale girl, with braces, who stood looking harrowed and afraid.

Phoebe simply looked at the floor until she stepped to the desk and demanded a fresh copy of her timetable with such audacity that the woman behind the desk just handed her over a printout, to irritated to ask why she didn't have one, or know it, in the middle of the year.


	5. Paige Matthews

**Chapter 3**

**Paige Matthews**

Paige Matthews shuffled up to the admissions desk as the girl in the biker jacket left. She found herself shaking with nerves. She wondered how to introduce herself when she was asked to in the classes ' Hi, I'm Paige, and I'm the freaky foster kid.'

It had been a while since her parents death and though the authorities had tried a change in school had ended up inevitable, which had made things feel so much worse. Her friends from her old school had tried to keep in touch but between the deep abiding shock and grief and the equally deep freaked out feeling she hadn't felt much up to talking. I mean how was it she had lived, one minute she had been in the car feeling it roll and screaming and it seemed as if she had blinked her eyes and the scene had changed and she had been standing outside the car watching it burst into flame, and somehow _feeling_ her parents departure from this world and knowing she was totally alone.

"Yes?" a woman in huge ornate glasses that threw her whole aspect back to the sixties and made her bear more than a passing resemblance to Elton John looked at Paige kindly over the desk.

"I'm Paige...P-P-Paige Matthews... Sorry... I'm new."

The other woman smiled again "Calm down, you'll be fine."

"How do you know?" Paige snapped annoyed at being jerked from her thoughts and at seeing through her so easily. "Sorry Grams...Oh God I don't know where that came from...Sorry!"

"Stop apologising, dear... and I just know."

Paige smiled the light of hope lit in Paige's eyes "Thank you" she said gratefully.

"Now then," the woman said, handing Paige a bundle of papers, a timetable, a school calender and book lists "We'd best get someone to show you around" the woman breathed in and let out a great and commanding yell "Phoebe Wildman, I know you haven't taken yourself off to class. Get your butt in here and I'll let you get away with a better reason for being here than that you couldn't even bring yourself to remember the essentials."

Phoebe came back through the door her face sulky. "Phoebe, this is Paige, as you have the same class schedule and Paige is new you can show her around, seeing as you seem to have made a special effort to be here today." The woman said sarcastically.

Paige and Phoebe trooped out of the office "Hi" Paige said as brightly as she could manage "I'm Paige, Paige Matthews."

"Hey" said Phoebe not even bothering to look at Paige.

"If you didn't want to do this then why did you come back into the admissions office?' Paige challenged the other girl grumpily.

"I dunno, there was something about that woman that sort of forces me to listen to her!"

"I know what you mean, but if she affects you like that why did you not normally show up?"

"How did you...?"

"I just did. So, why?"

"'Coz' it's boring here, a total waste of time, but I suppose I have a job to do and it'll sound good when I tell my parents." Phoebe snapped her gum again and turned, walking away "Well, come on then!" Paige jogged after the other girl.In the admissions office the woman who had put the two girls together listening to the conversation through the door. She took off the glasses and put them in a drawer in the desk "You see Patti, I told you everything would work out okay."

The woman next to the speaker turned "What?", but the older woman had vanished, leaving what looked like sparkling white dust motes behind.


	6. High school society

**Chapter 5**

**High (school) society**

"So, you've got your nerds, your jocks, your cheerleaders and your outcast types, this place is just your usual high school really. And that..." said Phoebe listening intently "... is the bell for lunch period. You can take care of yourself for an hour right? I have other stuff to do." With that and spotting her friends in the distance, she headed after them calling to them to wait for her.

Paige stared around her afraid and lonely again. Yeah, Phoebe had treated her like a chore but at least she had been there.

Paige stood battling between the conflicting urges to stand and bitch to herself or cry, when someone laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Paige spun around swallowing the edge of hysteria that threatened to come out in her voice. "I'm fine...I just... I'm new and I don't know anyone and the girl who was supposed to show me around is gone and..." Paige could sense herself babbling and forced herself to calm down "I'm just a little lost is all."

"You can come and sit with me and mine if you'd like?"

"Thanks...erm?"

"Piper, my name is Piper. McKenzie, like the new restaurant down town?"

"I'm new I haven't tried it. I will though! I'm Paige, Paige Matthews", the younger girl said as she gathered her things and followed her new friend. "This is probably going to sound silly to you Piper but, have we met before?"

"No, I don't think so but I know what you mean."

Piper smiled as she and Paige approached a group of girls sat on a picnic bench in the middle of the big quad. "Hi guys, this is Paige, Paige this is Claire, Alex, Jenny and Rowan.

"Hi," Pipers friend Claire spoke first "You're new right? Didn't the admissions office lumber you with 'Freebie' Wildman?"

"Claire!" Piper spoke up admonishing her friend for her cruelty.

"Well..." Claire said and something in her tone told Paige, that she felt nothing more was needed. Piper grimaced at her friend and changed the subject "So, Paige, where did you transfer from?"

"Just another school up state" Paige felt sick, she did NOT want the conversation to turn this way, and she decided another subject change was in order.

"What do you guys do when you're not picking up waifs and strays then?" Paige said forcing false brightness into her voice and a smile onto her face.

Rowan chimed in here. "We don't really do much, we just hang out at Pipers' family's new restaurant"

"And make the place look busy!" Piper laughed.

As everyone joined in with her laughter a group of jocks and their assorted girlfriends spilled out onto the quad from a classroom building onto the grass of the quad, raucous and loud. Paige noticed one couple stood aloof, the girl quiet and watching, the guy all about the girl.

"That's Pru Gordon and Andy Trudeu" Piper said quietly to Paige "Head cheerleader and captain of the football team."

It seemed to Paige that Pru heard her name mentioned even over such a distance and headed over to the group on the bench.

"Piper! Have you sorted out the booking at your parents restaurant for after the game?"

"Sure I have Pru. It's the biggest booking we'll have had since we opened! From the numbers you gave me half of the senior class will be there!"

Pru flashed Piper a grin as Claire asked "Hey Pru, what's it like to have the perfect guy?"

Pru smiled her eyes lighting up at the mere mention of Andy in spite of the fact he was barely twenty feet away.

"He's not perfect. I think it's Piper looking for perfect. I heard you turned down Chase Salter last week?"

"The Vice Captain of the football team" Rowan whispered to Paige.

"Sorry Pru, but my perfect guy would have to be a real angel." Piper quipped quickly.

"And Chase is certainly not that!" Pru admitted, she stopped then as if seeing Paige for the first time.

"Pru, this is Paige, she's new."

Pru extended her hand and Paige shook it, their contact bringing a shock of recognition to Paige for the fourth time that day.

Claire stood and gathered her things "Piper, we gotta go. It was nice to meet you Paige. 'Bye Pru."

"'Bye guys" Piper called to her retreating friends, just as Phoebe stormed across the quad looking for Paige and on seeing her headed over to pick her up.

As Phoebe leaned on the table and her hand came into contact with the wooden surface, as were the hands of the other three girls it was as if a circuit had been completed, the air around them turned electric blue and cracked as if it had lightening in it.

And in the distance... oh so far away a school bell rang


	7. What the?

A/N Thanks to AnimeAlexis, blumvale, and alchemystik32 for their help.

**Chapter 6**

**What the...?**

The energy field around the little group of girls faded. They stood stunned for a second.

"What was...?" Paige asked

"It... it was nothing...static or something." Pru said quickly.

"Hey, Pru!" Andy called, apparently completely unaware of what had just happened to his girlfriend and those with her. "You coming or what? We have a history test after home room."

"Coming!" Pru turned and called over her shoulder to him. "I gotta split guys" she said unnecessarily to the others, unable to disguise the tremor in her voice.

"Pru, you can't just..." Phoebe cried.

Piper spoke now her own voice shaking "Yes, she can..." Her voice strengthened as if she had found strength in the decision to ignore what had just happened "... and so can I, so can we all. It was good to meet you Paige." Piper strode away in one direction as Pru left in the other.

"Come on Paige, we've got to get to home room too."

"But, Phoebe..."

"Come on! I'm in the crap if I don't get you to home room."

Paige gave in, as confused as the others and ran after Phoebe, shouting "Where is home room?"

There was a blur of blue lights and a classroom full of shocked kids witness Paige's first use of her new power. Paige confused, scared and more than a little embarrassed, let out a shrill cry of "Oh crap!" and ran from the staring eyes of her classmates.

Phoebe saw Paige, in fact nearly ran into Paige, as she bolted from home room. Phoebe caught up with Todd and grabbed his hand. She was stopped dead by what she saw in a shocking flash, Todd kissing, Lisa Sundon, one of Pru's little cheer girls.

"You... you... JERK!". She screamed hitting him hard in the shoulder before turning to run after Paige.

- - -

It had been a long, hard, strange, day and Piper was so glad it was Friday. She wouldn't have to see Pru, Phoebe or that new girl, Paige, for a few days. She also wouldn't have time to think about what a weird day she'd had, as she would spend the weekend 'stuck' doing her favourite 'chore', helping out at her family's restaurant. Piper changed into her black and white waitresses uniform and pulled her long, dark hair up into a ponytail, to keep it off her face for work. Her brown eyes shone, as the excitement of working a fully booked evening shift.

She bombed down the stairs from her family's apartment above the restaurant and ran, literally, smack into another waiter, Doug, carrying a load of glasses.

Piper shrieked and raised her hand, attempting to shield her face from the falling glass. Only there was no glass. She stepped away from the other waiter and stared, power freaked at the sight of the tower of glasses, stock still at forty five degrees.

Ever practical, she took the initiative, realising how much the glasses would cost her parents business if they fell, she grabbed the tower by it's top and base and propped them in the corner of the room, behind her.

Suddenly, Doug unfroze and lunged to catch the tower of glasses that he no longer held. He stared around wildly, and was almost as shocked as Piper, as he spotted the glasses that he could have sworn he had been carrying in his hands, propped in the corner behind the bosses daughter. Piper smiled brightly intending to distract the other waiter, who shook his head bemused, choosing to shake off what he, and to be honest, Piper too, couldn't understand.

Piper watched the man go and then called out "Mom, I'll be a little bit late starting work, I have to make a telephone call!"

"What, Piper...?"

"I won't be long, something just came up!" 'Or didn't fall down' she thought.

She ran back upstairs, grabbing the restaurant's booking diary on the way past.

- - -

Pru Gordon ran and grabbed the see through 'phone in her bedroom.

"Hello?"

"Pru?"

"Yes?" she said uncertainly.

"It's Piper... McKenzie. We met at lunch today, when...you know? Anyway..." Piper stammered not really knowing what she was going to say, "...has anything kind of... strange happened to you today?"

"No, why?"

"N-n-no reason. Listen I was just wondering, you wouldn't know how to get hold of Phoebe or Paige, would you?"

"No, why would I?"

I don't know I just thought..."

Pru heard a voice in the background at Pipers end of the line and heard Piper yell 'Coming!' in spite of the fact Piper covered the receiver with her hand.

"I gotta go Pru." Piper said and without waiting for Pru's response or even saying goodbye, Piper hung up the 'phone and bounded down the stairs, to take to order of the cute, young, blonde guy, who seemed oddly familiar, on table five.

Pru looked at the handset of her 'phone for a moment, after all it isn't often that a high schools head cheer leader gets hung up on by a waitress. Pru then turned and looked at the clock on her other bedside table and swore softly, taking that pointless call from Piper had made her late for the game.

"Where are my damn pom poms?"

Pru screeched as the brightly coloured pom poms appeared in her outstretched left hand, just as she had spotted the actual pom poms on her bed. Still screaming she dived for her 'phone and star sixty nined the last call...


	8. Home

**Chapter 7**

**Home**

The weekend seemed to crawl by for all of the girls.

Phoebe, uncharacteristically, at home and tried desperately not to touch anything that didn't belong as vision after vision plagued her waking moments and strange thoughts, primarily about the creepy, old house on Prescott Street invaded her dreams.

Paige, stayed in her room and tried not to use any nouns when answering her foster parents anxious questions or to talk to herself, as last time she had mused aloud about weather or she should have a cookie, she had accidentally orbed the jar to herself.

Piper had simply spent the weekend with her hands shoved deep in her jeans pockets, which had made working in the restaurant extremely difficult and annoyed her busy parents a great deal. The good thing was that if she wasn't working she avoided the quizzical looks she was still getting from Doug, the frozen waiter, and plenty of time to fantasise about the cute blonde guy she'd seen at school and at the restaurant.

Prue was just trying not to want anything too hard, as a new, very expensive dress, she'd admired had appeared out of nowhere and landed in her lap, as if it had fallen from the sky. She had been forced not to think about Andy at all, for fear of what might happen if she let her mind wander too far.

And so it was that the two girls who were compelled to go to the old, empty house on Prescott Street, by dreams or by feelings contacted the other two, Prue calling Piper and Phoebe calling Paige, and both pairs somehow showing up on the doorstep of the house at one and the same time.

"What are you doing here?" Phoebe demanded when she and Paige unexpectedly met Prue and Piper.

"I don't know... there's just. Something. I've always felt something about this house, something strange and sort of familiar, and as this week seems to be the week for weird and I know odd stuff has been happening to Piper too I thought...Hey!" Prue stopped as she realised she didn't have to answer to Phoebe "What are you two doing here anyway?"

"I dreamt about it. Somehow I knew I had to come here and I didn't want to come alone, so I bought Paige along for the ride."

"So?" Piper cut in "How do we get into this creepy, old place, that no sane person would want to get into, anyway?"

Phoebe looked at Paige, who took the hint, pulled a face of extreme concentration, orbed out and then orbed straight back in again, three inches to her left, turning a decrepit flowerpot to dust as she re materialised.

"So that's what you do?" Piper asked, her eyebrows raising so high that they lengthened her fringe.

"Yeah, but I haven't really got it down yet." Paige said apologetically.

Then it was Prue's turn "Man, I really wish I had the key to this house" she yelled heavily, not making a statement, but issuing a demand to the empty air.

The other girls watched amazed as a large key appeared on the doorstep at her feet.

Prue smiled at the others "And that, girls, it what I do!"

She picked up the key and stepped forward and unlocked the big stained glass door.

The door opened inwards to reveal a long hall and a staircase, their woods painted in dark stain and the several doors that led off the halls, stained the same colour, with gold handles, dull under a think coat of dust, all closed.

There seemed to be about a thousand years worth of dust, both settled on everything and thickening the air. This should have made the place seem deeply uninviting, but as each girl stepped over the threshold, the place seemed to be taken over by some inner light, that made it feel to each one of them like...

..."Home" Paige said softly "It feels more like my home here than anywhere ever has, even when my parents were still alive.

"I know what you mean" Phoebe said "No rows."

"And I swear I can smell cooking" said Piper "Bread and good coffee."

"I just feel... complete." Prue said "No-one's missing, no-one's lying. Everything is as it should be here."

Each girl spoke quietly, as if afraid to break the house's spell. The stained glass door had clicked shut behind them and cast a myriad of colours as the light shone through it. Piper watched the light and for some reason battled to shake of the transfixed feeling that seemed to hold them all.

"But what are we doing here?" Piper asked, ever practical "Why _us_? Why would Prue call me? A passing acquaintance? Why would Phoebe call Paige, who's only just got here and why would Paige and I come?"

"Because weird stuff has happened to all of us since we first met at school and I suppose we didn't know who else to talk to about it!" reasoned Paige "and personally, I've only just moved here, I don't know anyone and I had nothing else to do with my Sunday!"

Piper grinned then, the brightness of it elevating her already pretty face, a step closer to beauty.

"Okay, while we're answering questions, why were Phoebe and I drawn here?" Prue said.

"And why do we feel so opposite to how we should feel standing in an abandoned house, probably illegally, yet the only thing we feel, is safe, is that we're home and we all feel that but for totally different reasons?" Phoebe said slowly.

"Since when did you and yours care about illegal?" Prue demanded.

"I don't know!...I guess I just grew up" she said thoughtfully.

"Right, well, revelations and voyages of self discovery are all well and good people but don't we have a whole tonne of creepy 'who's manipulating my brain?' and 'what the hell is going on?' type questions to be answered?" Piper asked.

Prue saw her point and pretty immediately took charge. "Everybody split up, Phoebe you go up to the attic, Paige you stay on this floor, Piper you take the basement. I'll take upstairs and we'll meet right here when we're done with our own floors" she indicated the bottom of the stairs as if the others didn't already understand what she meant.

Paige immediately saw the flaw in being left on the floor who's door they had entered by, off the street, in broad daylight, as it left her the most likely to be caught, in the quickest time, in the old house they had entered without permission.

"Er...guys..."

But the others were long gone and obviously too deeply involved in exploring their respective floors to hear her.

Paige sighed deeply, shrugged and bowed to Prue's assumed authority, setting off to explore her own designated floor.


	9. Little rooms and finds aplenty

A/N Thanks to AshDenver for digging out the proper wording to the Spirit Board inscription and the empowerment spell. I hope no-one minds that I fiddled with them a little to suit my purposes.

**Chapter 8**

**Little rooms and finds aplenty **

They hunted through the dusty old house each working on their allocated floors.

Piper found the basement, sort of basement-y but she did find a weird ouija board type thing, with an inscription on the back

_To my four beautiful girls,_

_may this give you the light to find the Shadows. The Power of Three will set you free, but the Power Of Four could give you more._

_Love Mom_

So, there had been a family here, a slightly weird family with three, or possibly four, daughters in it. She wondered who they had been and if they had felt the same about this house as she and her new friends did.

Piper picked it up and put it on the basement steps, placing the pointer she found a moment later by it's side, for some reason not wanting to place the pointer on its surface, and picked around the rest of the contents, mostly dusty holiday decorations and old cookbooks, some of which she knew her Mom would love, and wondered if it was technically stealing, if no-one owned the stuff. She picked up one of the cookbooks and blew the muck of the cover. "A Real Witches Cookbook." Piper read, and she flipped to the inside page, another inscription, in the same writing as before.

'_To Mom, maybe this will improve things. You know, I do love you really. Love Patti' _

Well, maybe this family wasn't so weird after all, that sounded like something she and her Mom would say to each other but probably not about cooking though.

Paige hunted over the central floor of the house, the living room was comfortable, set out for a large family, full of photographs and overstuffed sofas and chairs, all light colours and family and comfort. The kitchen was again pretty, large and light, it was cluttered with utensils and crockery, children's plates stood on the draining board giving the whole place a Marie Celeste feel. She poked in the cupboards, mostly they were full of food, so far gone there wasn't even enough to rot any more, but one that smelled pungent and whose contents, which seemed like it was all herbs and strange pickled things she didn't want to open, was mostly intact in dusty jars with strange labels in a strong scrolling handwriting. She left the strong smelling cupboard behind having been thoroughly freaked out on reading 'Dried Atrax Demon Skin' written in that same strong handwriting on a sticky label. The dining room had a long dark wood dining table, with what, she assumed was once a white tablecloth draped across it and a large chandelier. Once again it was crammed with photographs. Paige picked what looked like a family photograph there were what she assumed were the parents of three small girls, with an older woman standing behind them, and slightly to the side, the main family, smiled they looked smart and happy and together, the older woman looked slightly sarcastic, her smile was ironic, but she was still very much part of the picture, and Paige was suddenly struck by how familiar that older woman looked, though for the moment Paige couldn't place her. Paige pulled the photograph to her chest and wandered through to the sunroom. The light filtered onto the wooden floor through the dirty windows and Paige wondered how on earth all the windows had managed to survive flawless in spite of their unprotected state.

Prue explored the bedrooms, two were decorated for adults, there were men's and women's clothes in the wardrobe, mess and life paraphernalia everywhere, single earrings and abandoned shoes, a room for a couple, but everything that was out and seemed to have been in any kind of use seemed to belong to the woman. Like her Mom's room at home, maybe, like her, there had been a man in this room once and the clothes left in the wardrobe kept up this unknown woman's hopes, a stasis on lost love. Prue's throat tightened at the thought, that perhaps this was how her Mom was living and how awful that must be, because it was all for nothing, and at the thought that this woman had died still holding on to this pointless hope. How did she know this woman had died, she didn't know, her mind wouldn't function about that. Prue left inwardly shaking her head at her cynicism. The second adult room was sparser, but what there was carried a richness, a full of life kind of feeling about it. The other bedrooms were fitted up like kids rooms, not just kids rooms, little girls rooms, all stuffed animals and pink with a crib in one room, a really small child lived here. Prue felt a weight on her heart, and tears welled up behind her eyes, she knew this place and she hated that she didn't know why. She walked over to the little crib, in it was a blanket, hand knitted and embroidered with a letter P. She had one just like this at home, she was sure of it and it made her chin crumple again just to think of it. She couldn't stand it any more, she turned from the room with the empty crib and fled down the stairs.

Phoebe went to the attic, the door was sticky and it took a bit of a shove to get it open. When she got in there Phoebe decided she had been lumped with the suckiest floor of the lot, conveniently pushing to the back of her mind that Piper had got stuck with the basement.

She mooched around for a while, until she heard Prue flying down the stairs and decided that if Prue had found something exciting enough to run for then she had to find something even better.

She began to hunt around with a little more urgency until she stumbled across a heavy chest. She flipped the lid, muttering to herself "Well if anyone's gonna have any half decent crap. I imagine it's going to be in something like this." She peered inside, there lay a large green book with a strange picture on the cover, three interlocking ovals within a circle. Phoebe looked at it and lost all sense of where she was or what she was doing even who she was, the whole world was this book. She settled into the nearest chair and flipped open the cover.

She read what was on the first page to herself, not knowing that somewhere something else was listening.

_Hear now the words of the witches,_

_The secrets we hid in the night,_

_The greatest of gods are invoked here,_

_The great work of magic is sought,_

_In this night and in this hour,_

_I call upon the ancient Power,_

_Bring your Power to we sisters four,_

_We want the Power,_

_Give us the Power._

Downstairsthree voices shrieked "Woah" said Phoebe, more than a little in awe. "I have definitely found the coolest thing in this house."

Then it hit her and the memories came flooding back.


	10. Memories

**Chapter 9**

**Memories**

Phoebe ran down to the bottom of the stairs and watched the others.

Prue stood wiped out by the memories that had hit her. The pink embroidered blanket fell from her nerveless fingers as the previously untouchable memories flooded her mind.

She remembered living here, with her sisters, her mother and her grandmother, her Grams. Her sisters, my God, Piper and Phoebe, they were her sisters! She shook with the effort of trying to summon forth the blurred memories. She found herself hating whoever had kept the memories from her, as they felt dulled by time, even though it felt like she was seeing it all for the first time. She could smell the perfume that her mother had worn and could see the color of the large ring on her Grams' right middle finger, but she couldn't remember faces or voices and that truly enraged her.

Piper watched her new 'sisters', she remembered learning to cook with her Grams and her eyes clouded with tears, at the thought of the inscription in the cookbook, that she had dismissed so easily.

Phoebe thought about her house, not her home, the vibe of the pink house had already made her identify this place as home, her memories were blurred, colors and sounds mostly, and a great feeling of comfortable and safe. She had been a baby here and in spite of having spent only a tiny amount of her life here, she felt she had lived a better life here.

Paige had no memories, she had saved the pink, embroidered blanket from the dusty floor where Prue had let it fall, and was holding it at arms length, running her fingers idly over the soft fabric.

Eventually Paige broke the silence "Prue, where did you find this?"

"Upstairs, in the..Phoebe's... crib. Why?"

"Because I have one. I was left in a church, by angels, my parents told me the nun said, and the only thing that I had with me were the clothes I was wearing and a blanket, one of these blankets, and a request... that my name began with the letter P. Just like yours."

"Look" Piper said slowly "this can't be right, our parents would have known, they wouldn't have split us up. And our Mom, our Grams, I don't remember them very well but I can't think anyone in our family, our biological family would give one of us away."

"But we are a family right?"

Paige asked, her voice full of hope, at the idea of being part of a family again, even if it was a freaky ass family like this.

"Yeah... no.. honestly I don't know...I gotta go. I have to work." Piper said, her voice shaky and distant, she sounded well and truly spun out.

The others watched as she turned on her heel and left. Prue looked at the other two. "I have to go... I really need to think and talk to my Mom...And practice!"

Next Prue left, and the youngest girls listened to the rather violent sound of a car speeding away from a situation.

"My god...If this is right, I'm...we're...related to a damn cheer leader."

Paige smiled at the person she hoped was her older sister, she almost felt that she really was her sister. She glanced at her watch.

"Hell, look at the time, my foster parents are gonna kill me. I gotta blaze Pheebs'. I'll cya soon."

"Tomorrow in school."

"You'll be there?"

"I think it's the best place to sort all this out. It's where we've all gotta be."

"You believe in this, you believe we're all sisters."

"I really think I do. I really hope so too."

"Me too. Anyway I still gotta go."

She turned and jogged off.

Phoebe stood in the house, she knew somehow she should feel creeped out here alone, but she wasn't. She wandered around the parts of the house she hadn't seen yet, picking up jars in the kitchen, and examining the spirit board that Piper had found in the basement.

The inscription made more sense now.

Someone had known that the three sisters would be strong, but was aware of the fourth sister and wanted them in each others lives.

Phoebe wandered upstairs and flicked through the old book again.

"Come on talk to me. It worked before didn't it. Piper and Prue need to believe."

The pages of the book began to flip as if blown by some unfelt breeze, in Phoebe's unresisting hands.

And settled on one particular page.

_A spell to summon spirits_

She reached for her phone, first to call Paige, so they could start to bring the others around to their way of thinking.


	11. Family Reunion

**Chapter 10**

**Family Reunion**

Prue snatched up her 'phone and flinched at the voice on the other end of the line.

"Phoebe! What do you want?"

"All you and Piper did at the house was ask questions, and I think I might have found a way to get us _all_ some answers."

"How? I asked my Mom and she didn't know know anything about it except what the social services told her, which wasn't much, that my..our... biological mother was killed in a car accident and that our father couldn't be found. I imagine you and Piper's parents were told the same thing and Paige's didn't know anything, except the blanket, so neither does she, and now she's lost the family she had..."

"And what about Grams?"

Prue was quiet then, before gathering her thoughts enough to answer.

"They didn't know anything about her.. about what happened to her." she paused to give herself the chance to remain calm "What did your family say?"

"Nothing." The silence on the line made Phoebe continue talking "I haven't spoken to them, because I haven't been back."

"You're still at the pink house?"

"Where else would I be?"

"Why?"

"Because we found something here Prue. We're family Prue and and I think you know that."

Prue snapped at her then, but mostly because the truth hurt her "I have a family and you 'Freebie' are not in it!...Oh my God I'm so sorry. I didn't mean that."

"I know Cheergirl, just get here, Piper and Paige are coming, if you're the eldest, which we all know you are, the way you order the rest of us around, you should be here."

"There for what?"

"You'll see, and I might even forgive you for that 'Freebie' crack if you show up."

"Show up? Show up for what?"

But Prue was talking to a dial tone.

"Damn it Phoebe" Prue swore and grabbed her car keys. Meanwhile Phoebe was rephrasing the exact same, slightly fraudulent, 'phone call to Piper to convince her that the others were all coming and banking on the idea that Pipers family had known as little as Prue's had, or at least had been as reluctant to tell the tale as hers had, which had proved to be the case.

The call to Paige had been by far the easiest, Paige who desperately wanted to believe , who wanted a family, because right now she was the least lucky of all of them, she had no-one, no family, biological or adopted, Phoebe's family sucked but they were there and she supposed she knew that they loved each other in their own way, but Phoebe didn't think she only wanted it their way, their way meant that her already sky high fear threshold had vanished into the atmosphere and her need for fun far outweighed her limited respect for authority, but, more than that, she needed to be loved in a way she thought that Prue and Piper never needed, Prue, because she was already adored, most of the guys in school wanted to be with Prue Gordon, where as most of them had already been with Phoebe, she thought bitterly, and where as all the girls hated her, they all wanted to be Prue Gordon, but she didn't notice, she had Andy and her crew and at least acted like she didn't need anything else. Piper had a group of real close friends, a tight knit loving family, good grades and a focus in the form of the family restaurant. Only Paige who was totally alone could understand. Understand that if her biological parents had left her, how could anyone else possibly love her?

The thought stung so she turned back to her task, laying out a circle of white candles, lighting them and placing the Book of Shadows on the music stand she had found and put by the stained glass window.

She heard the others come in and stepped away from the circle of candles to stand by the Book, their family's Book, her smiling face lit by the soft light of the flickering candle flames. She mentally counted her new 'sisters' into the room.

'One, two, three and Phoebe makes four.' Phoebe thought, her smile widening.

She grinned at them, but didn't talk to them. Instead she began to chant.

"_Hear these words, hear my cry,_

_Spirit from the other side,_

_Come to me, I summon thee,_

_Cross now the great divide." _

All four sisters stood, staring, open mouthed as the room lit up, bright white, with floating orbs. Even Phoebe was stunned, in spite of herself, as these orbs manifested themselves into a shape which was familiar to all of the girls, the three eldest for one reason and Paige and Phoebe for another.


	12. Grams

**Chapter 11**

**Grams**

"We...we know you don't we?" Prue asked shakily, awed at the opaque figure in front of them.

"Well, I should hope so my dears. I'm your Grams."

"You're our what?" Paige demanded skeptically.

"Your grandmother, dear."

"Oh...Don't I know you from somewhere...else... don't I?"

"I dropped by for your first day at your new school."

"And what about the rest of us? What about the rest of our lives?" Piper demanded. She knew that under normal circumstances she'd be doing the karmic equivalent of shutting her eyes, ramming her fingers in her ears and singing 'la, la, la, la, I'm not listening!' at the very idea of having a conversation with the spirit of her long dead grandmother, about why she had only been to watch Paige start a new school and not her or the rest of her long lost sisters, but somehow she doubted that there were ever really going to be normal circumstances again.

"I mean...what the hell...Why didn't any of us remember any of it? Why were we all split up? Why are you here and not our Mom? And why did you guys die?"

"Goodness, Piper, you ask as many questions now as when you were six!"

"Yeah, I sort of remember that. Only now I'm a lot older, and I want some answers."

"My dear" Grams said a little condescendingly "You always wanted answers."

"Now, listen Lady..."

"I am Grams, thank you very much young lady. I'll answer your questions if only to stop your head from exploding. I wasn't around when you were all growing up, the same as your mother wasn't, because you girls had to come to this on your own."

"Then why were in the school office on Monday?" Phoebe asked suspiciously.

"Well...it's not unknown for us to cheat. Your mother has watched you all sleep from time to time and seen all of your school plays. I had to push you together, so you could discover your true path, your powers, each other."

"And what did you get involved have to do with us coming to all this on our own?" Prue asked, her tone sarcastic, on eyebrow raised and her hand on her hip.

"Well, it was taking you too long." Grams said smoothly, before moving on to Piper's next question. "You were split up, because, in the case of you eldest three, after your mother and I died, your father couldn't be found, so for some reason, child services decided to split you up. As for Paige, she was already at Saint Catherine's when your mother died. She died because she was hit by a car on the night that she gave Paige up and I was killed by a Caritut demon six weeks later. You weren't allowed to see your mother because the Powers thought it would be too painful for her to see her as yet, but bear in mind that's an 'as yet' stipulation. As for you memories, I assume it was a way to circumnavigate your mothers final spell, but how they were taken away or really why, but as an idea I'd look up 'Elders' and 'White lighters' in the Book of Shadows.

She then glanced off to her left as if hearing a sound that the girls couldn't hear. Grams sighed violently and shrugged as if in resignation, and then turned back to her still rather stunned granddaughters.

"I'm afraid I can't stay any longer. Blessed Be my darlings. It was wonderful to finally see you again Phoebe, Piper, Prue and to finally meet you Paige. We both love you all."

Her voice faded with her image, in a second swirl of white lights.

The girls stared in stunned silence for several empty moments, until Phoebe broke the stillness by trying, unsuccessfully to get the Book of Shadows off it's stand, and causing it to hit the dusty attic floor with a resounding crack.

All of the other girls responded to the sound as it snapped them out of their collective trance and spun to look at Phoebe, who grinned around at them apologetically.

"So, White lighters or Elders? Which do we start with?" She quired hefting the thick Book.

"Wait, wait, wait..." Piper said "...Am I right in thinking that she said she was killed by a demon?"

"Ohhhh, not good" Paige winced.


	13. Stranger

**Chapter 12**

**Stranger**

"Demons and warlocks are the sworn enemies of good witches and of good magic. Your individual Powers will help to protect you to a certain extent, but the Power you will wield as a group, if you choose to accept them, will be your main port in a storm and may prove to save the world in times of greatest need. Good luck my wonderful girls. I believe in you and I know you can do this, because you're mine. Love Mom." Paige read in a shaking voice, this message from their shared and long departed parent, that she was sure had not been there as she flipped through the pages of the Book of Shadows a few moments before.

"She...they...she...she knew about this?!?" Piper stuttered "She could have warned us...She should have warned us dammit!"

"How could she?" Prue said evenly "I was the oldest among us and I was only six. How could our mother or our grandmother have told a six year old, a five year old and a toddler that our mother had just given up our youngest sister, who was not our fathers daughter, up for adoption, by ditching her at a church to preserve our power to fight..."

"Demons and warlocks" Phoebe intersected, softly in a distracted tone as she shuffled through the potions on the attic shelves.

"Exactly, those." Prue said quickly. "Just, maybe, she wanted us to have a normal childhood."

"If she wanted us to have a normal childhood she shouldn't have done any of that. She shouldn't have ditched Paige and then gone off and left us!"

"She didn't leave us Piper, she died."

At this point, when the words actually left her new sister's mouth, Piper broke down. "Well then she should never have done that, neither of them should." She sobbed, before grabbing her rucksack and fleeing the attic.

She stumbled blindly down the stairs and out of the stained glass front door, the grief and anger of this new loss hitting her so painfully that she could barely breathe.

She exploded out of the door, down the steps and hit the gorgeous guy from the restaurant straight in the chest.

She had been heading out of the house so quickly that had he not dropped his hands on to Piper's shoulders.

"Oh God...I'm so sorry...I..." She let out a great gulping sob and tried to shake the guy off. She knew it probably made her seem mean, but she just wanted to get away from this place, to cry, to scream to throw up, to decide or to forget, she didn't know.

But the guy would not let go. Instead he seemed to hold on to her tighter.

"Hey, are you OK?"

"NO!... I'm sorry I just...I have to get out of here."

"OK, OK silly question, but I don't think you should go home alone. At least let me walk you?"

Piper breathed out sharply, this wasn't the sort of thing that normal, sensible Piper MacKenzie would do, walk home, in a state, with a stranger, but even as she set herself up to refuse, she felt herself sink into his chest.

"Thanks" Maybe Piper Haliwell would do this. "I'm Piper." She didn't give a surname. If she was honest, right now she barely knew which one to give.

"Nice to meet you Piper."

The guy chuckled, let go of her shoulders and stepped away. Piper found she almost immediately wished he hadn't, but she pushed the thought out of her head. She had too much to think about to give any of her head spaces to thoughts about guys. Especially total stranger guys. Even if they were really cute total stranger guys.

"What's funny?"

"I have my arms wrapped around you while you cry and all I can think to say is 'Nice to meet you.' It's just a little weird."

"I have had the weirdest week in the world, so for me it's really not all that strange. Though it is a little out of character for me. I mean you could be a mad axe murderer or something...Not that I'm saying you are..."

She dropped her head, 'cute, sensitive guy, lets me cry all over him and I say I'm weird and that he probably only did it to murder me! OH GOD!' she thought, a little hysterically.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"What my murder?"

"No, your weird week."

"Not so much...I don't think I have it coded well enough in my head to talk about it yet...Or possibly ever."

"'K."

They walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence, walking so close that their shadows crossed.

Outside the restaurant Piper spoke softly. It was dark in there now, closed up for the night, and Piper instantly felt guilty for the amount of time she'd spent at the Haliwell house. She wondered if she had worried her parents. " But they're not my parents." She said softly and the thought made her well up.

"What?" The guy still close at her side quired as he heard her speak. She sniffed and cleared her throat, to try to shift the buzzing in her head.

"Nothing...This is my stop."

"A restaurant, hey, do they sell coffee here?"

"Yeah why?"

"Well, I like coffee. I thought I might stop by and get some here. See if it's good. Maybe you could help me choose the best one."

"Sure... Thank you."

"No problem."

The guy shrugged off the praise, and began to walk away.

"Hey" Piper called after him "How am I gonna help you choose the best coffee if I don't know your name so they can let me know when you're there."

He turned, his blond hair glinting in the light cast by a street lamp. "I'm Leo. Now get indoors before your family has me arrested! Cya!"

"Cya Leo!"

Piper unlocked the door, and went inside, before leaning her weight against it. "Leo." she said softly, unaware that, down the street he smiled as he heard.


	14. No Longer Lost

**Chapter 12**

**No Longer Lost**

Time moved on as time will, the mystery man had broken Piper Haliwell's heart, listening to her complaints and concerns and putting her back on the magical path with her sisters, before wittingly or not, breaking her heart, by disappearing, and finally cementing her relationship with her biological family, as her sisters gathered round to help her through her loss.

As the sisters bonded, their powers grew stronger and their knowledge grew wider. Paige settled grudgingly into the slightly put upon role of younger sister, Prue took to being the oldest, as if things had never been any different, Phoebe retained her role as th rebel and Piper found herself as the mediator, the heart of the new family.

However, things were not to stay idyllic and harmonious for long. The girls' growing powers and strengthening unity were drawing attention from unwanted, dangerous corners.

It was a Friday evening, and as usual for the last few months the girls had bid friends farewell at school and were walking back to the Manor together, to spend a couple of hours at the place they now officially considered home before heading back to their respective homesteads for the night. It was at the point in the evening that Prue was locking up the house for the night and the other girls hung around to decide who got to take the key home, even though the three younger sisters knew Satan would be skating to work when Prue handed the key over to anyone else.

All four girls were cut short in this by the sound of a movement behind them. All the girls spun, and were greeted by the sight of a tall, dark haired man, dressed rather incongruously in skin tight black leather.

Phoebe raised an eyebrow and Piper addressed him carefully. "Can we help you?"

"I was just looking at the great 'Charmed Ones' before I kill you, such fear...inspired by children!" The guy sneered.

"Guys, keep your distance!" Prue ordered, her tone sharp. "Paige, take the others around the side of the house." Prue's voice was calm and Paige recognized the order to get her sisters to somewhere where it was safe to orb them to safety with a lesser risk of being seen.

"Prue, we're not going anywhere without you!" Piper said, surprised at the fierceness in her voice.

"No, you're not." Prue said calmly.

Pure stepped back and snagged Piper's hand grabbing hold of Paige's left hand as Phoebe grabbed her right. They orbed to the attic in a haze of blue light.

"Well, so much for no exposure risk!" Paige said, in a slightly hysterical tone.

"Paige, there's no one out there except the weirdo that wants to KILL US!" Prue reasoned keeping her tone even until the last two words.

"Guys, the Book, and Grams, they warned us about this, he's not a man, he's a demon...No mortal knows that we're the Charmed Ones!" Phoebe said

"But, I didn't think anyone, or anything else did either?" Piper said her tone puzzled and scared.

There was a rushing sound behind them and as they turned they saw the recently identified demon watching them again, his expression amused, as he enjoyed their fear,

"Well they do now!"

Phoebe scrabbled for the Book which fell open at the incantation designed specifically for the Power o Four, and was about to begin looking for a vanquish for this particular demon, when it let off a fireball, which came close enough to Piper to singe her sleeve.

"Hey!" She called glaring at her sleeve for a second before throwing out a freeze, which to the sisters' horror the demon shrugged off.

"What now?" Paige asked panicked.

"Power Of Four Spell." Phoebe yelled, and motioned to her sisters, who took the hint and ran to stand beside the Book Of Shadows, and beginning the chant.

"May the Power Of Four,

Make this evil no more..."

As they chanted the short incantation over and over, the demons smirk vanished, and with one bloodcurdling scream, it vanished in a pillar of fire.

The sisters only stopped chanting when the threat had become little more than a sooty smudge on the attic floor.

They stopped slowly, uncertainly, and stepped towards the smudge. Paige poked at it with her foot and then hid behind Piper, until satisfied it wasn't going to rise again, Piper fetched a broom to sweep up the remains of their first foe.

"Well ladies," Prue said, when Piper had returned and swept up the demon ash "That was our first demon, and we kicked it's ass, think we can handle it?"

This was said in such sarcastic tones that all four sisters collapsed in to laughter.

"Wanna come to the restaurant, get some ice cream?" Piper suggested, and in agreement the four walked down the stairs, locked up the Manor and left.


	15. The Charmed Ones

**Epilogue**

**The Charmed Ones **

Ten years have passed, since the first demon the girls faced. They have faced each coming challenge both normal and demonic as a strong family unit, and have survived each.

Prue married Andy after he settled down from his original freak out when he discovered she was a witch. They have a daughter Patty Louise, named for both of their mothers

Leo returned, and Piper forgave his abandonment, when she found out the truth, though things still get a little rocky at times and with the development of Piper's new power, deatomisation, Leo finds himself getting blown up on occasion.

Phoebe remains the rebel, dating the wrong men and doing the wrong thing, but knows she can always rely on the support of her family. She has signed up to do a psychology degree at community college. It starts in the fall.

Paige, is training to become a social worker and trying her hardest to help families stay together, or find each other, because she knows the joy it can bring.

They proved themselves Haliwell descendants, even Paige with DNA testing, and inherited the Haliwell Manor, what with the Nexus in the basement causing problems with resale and all.

So that's our ending, the family, as a family, where they're supposed to be.

No longer lost.

Forever Charmed.


End file.
